Steven Roth

Roth is another billionaire real estate developer that co-owns two Trump buildings in Manhatten and San Francisco. He still has meetings with Trump and even was an advisor to Trump’s political campaign. It is unknown what their meetings entailed, but it certainly raises suspicion conflict of interest.

Atul & Sagar Chordia

Atul & Sagar Chordia are well-connected brothers that own Panchshil Realty in India. They were involved with the construction of India’s first Trump Tower. They are also spotted in business meetings with the Trump family on a regular basis.

The fact of the matter is that Costa Rica heavily relies on food imports and the government heavily taxes everything. The local agriculture cannot sustain the rapidly growing population but Costa Rican protectionist laws are stuck in the past. It is not just tasty luxury goods that are taxed, but basic staples are heavily taxed. Rice has tariffs of 35%, beans 30%, and milk at 65% just to name a few.

A small group elite families have deep roots within the government that allow them to take advantage of the system. The rice companies that belong to Corporación Arrocera (Conarroz) are the only entities allowed to import rice duty-free. Since rice is price controlled, these companies can only sell the rice at a maximum price. Imported rice is much lower than local rice, so these companies simply sell the cheap foreign rice at the fixed prices and pocket the rest. Since rice is such an important part of the working class’s diet, this gives Conarroz members a lot of power.

Good old Uncle Pelon.

It is no secret that foreign investment in Costa Rica has increased the prices dramatically. The unfortunate thing is all construction materials are also heavily taxed. Families that want to construct a simple home on a rural plot of land will have to pay nearly double in comparison to neighboring countries. For working class folk that make $400 a month, they would be lucky to own a shack of corrugated iron.

Some places are not so Pura Vida. Uruca, San Jose

Costa Rica is a country that has had extreme poverty for decades due to the lack of industry. The poverty has relatively remained the same since the 1990’s due to the extremely high cost of living for a developing country. Even Nicaraguans are starting to enjoy a similar standard of living even with earning less than half of the typical Tico. The promised intention of tariffs and price fixing was to take from the rich and give to the poor, but the exact opposite is happening in Costa Rica.

The US is not the land of the free. It is, in fact, one of the least free places in the world with the largest concentration camp population, per capita, by a large margin and the biggest extortion racket in the world, extorting Americans via the IRS for more than $2 trillion per year.

The US is not the home of the brave. If it were, the American people would not allow the US government to constantly scare them into giving up what freedoms they have left.

The President of the US is not the “leader of the free world”. He is the misleader of a fasco-communist dictatorship and empire that is currently destroying much of the world.”

“Remember pre-election, how the theme was that a Killary presidency meant certain war? And, how a Trump presidency would mean friendship with Russia and bringing many of the troops home?

Well, so much for that! Trump is just as oriented toward war as Hillary. The difference is one of geography. Trump’s wars are located particularly in the Middle East. He is already looking even worse than Nobel Peace Prize winner, Barack O’Bomber or George “Victory in Iraq” Bush.”

In a recent article, a group of 89 Venezuelans were denied entry with the suspicion that they are working illegally. The toll has now reached 300+ Venezuelans.

The Panamanian government has made it official that they will not let anybody from any nationality renew their visas at the Costa Rican land border. It is still uncertain whether perpetual tourists can obtain reentry through the airports.

Due to the economic crisis, many Venezuelans are seeking refuge in the economically stable country of Panama. A bus load of 89+ Venezuelans were denied access to the country due to the suspicion that they are working illegally.

Venezuelans, as well as other Latin Americans, will live in the country as perpetual tourists and renew their tourist visa every 6 months at the Costa Rica border. Many cannot afford to apply for residence visas due to the high costs of obligatory lawyers and the Panamanian government’s bureaucracy.

With growing fears of increased violence and unemployment, Panamanians are becoming leery of allowing people to stay in the country on extended tourist visas. The government has also been discussing closing immigration programs like Crisol de Razas due to the recent outrage by Panamanian protesters. The immigration had previously been lax with renewing tourist visas since it was mainly being utilized by rich gringo retirees from Boquete.

One of the nicer hotels in the Paso Canoas border zone.

The entrance requirements for Panama is simply $500 in cash or in your bank account, a plane ticket going back to your country of citizenship, fingerprints and quite possibly they will want to see hotel reservations. Returning tourists will need to stay out of the country for 3 days, and many opt to sleep in the seedy hotels available within the border.

Waking science published a great article examining how corporate funding and government lobbying is ruining scientific research. Instead of seeking the truth, scientists are jumping to conclusions to favor their corporate masters. The article covers GMO lobbying, medical research, climate change, vaccines and pharmaceuticals.

The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) is a coalition of pacific groups in the United States that are refusing to pay taxes. They were founded in 1982 as a reaction to the election of Ronald Raegon. Tax resistance originally become popular during the Vietnam War protests.

They NWTRCC published an online guide detailing several methods on how to refuse to pay taxes. This includes filing out a 1040 form and only pay a certain percentage of your income, earning below the threshold of taxable income or just refusing to file tax returns. They also encourage sending in letters protesting overseas wars with in addition to your tax forms.

While the IRS has a fearsome reputation, putting your tax debt into collections is their typical course of action for low income earners. The list of war tax resisters that have been sent to jail is rather short, and many convictions are due to not so modest tax debts. The most recently convicted resister was Joseph Olejak for $240,000 in back taxes. If you own property, there is also a chance of confiscation.

With the election win of Donald Trump, there is an increasing amount of tax resisters protesting the new administration’s immigration policy. In an article in TheGuardian, the NWTRCC claims that the traffic to their website has more than doubled since Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Even the Nobel “Peace” Prize winner Barack Obama left behind the biggest defence budget with the largest national debit in world history. Donald Trump has promised to increase the defense budget by even more.

1. Increased Warfare Spending

Both Democrats and Republicans alike have kept the military industrial complex alive. Although winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama had increased drone strikes and illegally intervened in Libya and Syria.

2. Trump appointed the anti-pot Jeff Sessions as attorney general

The future of legalized medical and recreational marijuana may be at risk since Jeff Sessions has a firm stance against legal marijuana. He has even made the statement “Good people don’t smoke marijuana” during a Senate hearing.

The federal government has the power to convict medical or recreational marijuana sellers in states that have legalized it. It is uncertain if Sessions will influence the Trump administration to ramp up the war on drugs.

3. Building The Great Wall

Appealing to the xenophobic nature of many Americans, Donald trump promised t build a complete wall on the border with Mexico. This wall is estimated to cost anywhere between $15 to $25 billion including maintenance costs and land acquisition. There is no guarantee that this will significantly reduce illegal immigration nor will it cause menial labor jobs to return to American citizens.

Not only does trump want to build a pricey wall, he wants to bully a developing country (Mexico) into paying for it. It is doubtful that Mexico will ever agree to pay for it.

The original intention of FATCA was to prevent overseas money laundering and tax evasion by the ultra wealthy. Unfortunately, the regulations have mostly impacted the finances of middle class Americans and banking institutions of developing countries.

Banks that fail to comply with FATCA regulations may be hit with a 30% on US based transactions. Many banks around the world have decided to turn their backs on American customers due to the bureaucratic headache.

The financial institutions of Caribbean nations cannot simply ignore FATCA since their economies are heavily invested in international finances. The regulations have caused capital to move away and has decreased the flow in international investments.

The United States have black listed 15 Caribbean nations as tax havens. Some US have cut off or restricted services to these countries because of this.

Kamla Persad Bissessa, a politician from Trinidad and Tobago, had written a letter by hand reminding Donald Trump to repeal FATCA. Trump had made remarks about repealing FATCA, but we are left waiting to see whether or not he will deliver.

Senator Rand Paul previously introduced a bill to repeal FATCA, but was ultimately shut down by the Democrat dominated Senate. With the hypocritical two party system, we may never see such a bill come to life again.